Real Life Trading with the AT&M Club




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  • 2016-10-02 20:04:24
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  Alaric Securities will give 7000 BGN to the best AUBG traders in this year's Investment Portfolio Management (IPM) Challenge, an initiative of the Assets Trading and Management (AT&M) club at AUBG. On Wednesday, Sept. 28, during an info session in ABF Center, the only finance-oriented club on campus, the AT&M club , announced its recruitment campaign as well as its plans for the upcoming academic year. The club also gave more details about the IPM Challenge that is expected to start in the second week of October and to continue during the rest of the semester. The club was established in 2012 by the AUBG alumnus Spartak Grigoryev, who is currently working for Goldman Sachs. Back then, the main idea of the founding members was to provide practical knowledge in finance and trading to those interested in these spheres. The current president of the club, Biliana Kraeva, assured that this is still the main focus for her and for the rest of the team. [caption id="attachment_32420" align="aligncenter" width="900"]The current heads of the AT&M clulb. The current heads of the AT&M clulb.[/caption]
"Our plan is to continue connecting AUBGers with professionals from the industry and enriching our knowledge in finance while having fun, simple as that," she said.
Kraeva also promised that during the 2016/2017 academic year the club will organize a number of lectures, field trips as well as the annual IPM Challenge, in which AUBG students will have the chance to experience what real life trading is. The main topic of the AT&M club's info session was actually the challenge itself. It is expected to start on Oct. 7. However, the date is flexible. The end will be on Dec. 2, 2016 and after that all of the participating teams will be required to make presentations to explain their trading strategies. As it was the previous year, the challenge is sponsored by Alaric Securities – one of the leading asset management companies in Bulgaria. The prize this time will be 7000 BGN, with 2000 BGN more than last year. The organizers are still not sure how the money will be distributed between the three winning teams. Mariela Naydenova, vice president the the AT&M club, said that the challenge is for everyone who is interested or experienced in trading. To make the competition fairer, the organizers decided that each of the teams will be composed of three students from different standings. First-year students will be allowed to take part only if they have a strong inclination and even experience in trading. However, participants who are at least second-year students are preferred as they are more prepared. Before the teams are formed, each of the participants will be invited for an interview by the organizers. [caption id="attachment_32421" align="aligncenter" width="900"]During the info session During the info session[/caption] A booth camp will be organized before the actual beginning of the challenge so that the participants will be familiarized with the rules and with the Market Watch platform that will be used. Naydenova also promised a series of lectures on topics in relation to the process of trading.
"I think the challenge will require a lot of effort but I find it great that there will be a booth camp where the organizers will train the participants as it will be valuable for people who have no experience with trading," said Veronica Georgieva, a fourth-year  student, who plans "to take part in the challenge to learn more about the world of asset trading and to see if [she has] a future in this field."
During the info session, the members of the club also presented their recruitment campaign and said it is open to everyone who has interest in finance, trading, or just in organizing events. They also explained that some of the advantages that the club offers to its members is the opportunity  to meet people from the sphere of finance as well as the in-club training sessions that will be organized every week. More info about the IPM Challenge and the recruitment campaign can be found on the club’s Facebook page. At the end of the session, Mariela Naydenova showed to all the present students a demo version of one of the world’s most popular and used financial data vendors. Such a system is not available at AUBG. However, many believe that “this is a necessity since there is a high concentration of students interested in finance and economics," as Tsvetozar Milanov, a third-year student majoring in Business Administration and Economics said. Photos: Artyom Kornev